Costa Rican famers beat climate change by soil defense

Farmers toiling the slopes of Costa Rica’s Irazú volcano are using electric fences, improved pastures and planting crops across the slope in their efforts to fight soil erosion and conserve water in a region declared to be highly vulnerable to climate change.

“Soil erosion limits [farmers’] ability to reduce soil loss and, at the same time, can increase their demand on fertilizers and pesticides to compensate for degraded fertility,” warned Raffaele Vignola of Costa Rica’s Climate Change and Watershed Program.

“Although some farmers are already using soil conservation practices, more understanding is needed to get them self-motivated in adopting such techniques, as a means of sustaining long-term food production.”

Source: Costa Rica News